Originally Posted by Old_Fogie

How I Got DRI & ATI Proprietary Drivers fglrx_6_8_0-8.19.10-1.i386 To Work In Slackware 10.2 with Kernel 2.6.10.


First my pc details:

ASUS A7n8X-E deluxe w/an AMD Barton 2500 + Overclocked on it's front side bus to be 400 mhz. So my motherboard is an AGP 8x motherboard that uses the nVidia nForce 2 chipsets. I am using (2) 512 mb ram cheap centon 400 fsb /2.5/3/3/7 memory timings. I'm running in what is termed "dual channel" mode. I have my AGP memory in the motherboard set to 128. My video card is an ATI 9600XT built by ATI. The card is not overclocked. I never could get it stable in windows, maybe now I play with it and see what I can get.

Now I had run Mepis 3.4.3 before I moved over to slackware. In Mepis during the install I chose the ATI drivers, and had instant success to get DRI. So long as you choose to install the ATI drivers as you are installing Mepis.

But because Mepis is a hybrid you can forget about changing drivers, etc. Not to "diss" Mepis but it feels like Windows to me.

But, I knew that my favorite game could run on Linux, Unreal Tournament 2004. So I did some research and found that Mepis is using drivers from ATI in the "teens" versions. That is not the "20" series which is what is on the ATI website now.

The ATI drivers that I will use have been referred to by many others on the internet as working with kernel versions up to 2.6.11 I really have not seen any threads where people are using a later kernel version with the most recent drivers that are presently up there now.

Be sure that you downlod the drivers for XORG !! Not the Xfree stuff.

First off:

1. I installed slackware 10.2 with full install and the default kernel 2.4.
2. I never installed the testing kernel.
3. I installed/compiled a new kernel which is version 2.6.10

Now remember I do not have pci Express if you do you need to configure that too. Options I read on internet that were required supposedly to be used when I compiled my kernel ( I did use these settings, your mileage may vary) :

# General setup
#
CONFIG_LOCALVERSION=""
CONFIG_SWAP=y
CONFIG_SYSVIPC=y
CONFIG_POSIX_MQUEUE=y

# Loadable module support
#
CONFIG_MODULES=y <---very important
CONFIG_MODULE_UNLOAD=y <---very important
CONFIG_MODULE_FORCE_UNLOAD=y <---very important
CONFIG_OBSOLETE_MODPARM=y
# CONFIG_MODVERSIONS is not set
# CONFIG_MODULE_SRCVERSION_ALL is not set
CONFIG_KMOD=y

# Firmware Drivers
#
# CONFIG_EDD is not set
CONFIG_NOHIGHMEM=y <---very important
# CONFIG_HIGHMEM4G is not set
# CONFIG_HIGHMEM64G is not set
# CONFIG_MATH_EMULATION is not set
CONFIG_MTRR=y <----very important
# CONFIG_EFI is not set
CONFIG_HAVE_DEC_LOCK=y
# CONFIG_REGPARM is not set

# Graphics support
#
CONFIG_FB=y
CONFIG_FB_MODE_HELPERS=y
CONFIG_FB_TILEBLITTING=y
# CONFIG_FB_CIRRUS is not set
# CONFIG_FB_PM2 is not set
# CONFIG_FB_CYBER2000 is not set
# CONFIG_FB_ASILIANT is not set
# CONFIG_FB_IMSTT is not set
# CONFIG_FB_VGA16 is not set
CONFIG_FB_VESA=y <--Note: you will be using VESA. Later to install the Radeon.
CONFIG_VIDEO_SELECT=y
# CONFIG_FB_HGA is not set
# CONFIG_FB_RIVA is not set
# CONFIG_FB_I810 is not set
# CONFIG_FB_INTEL is not set
# CONFIG_FB_MATROX is not set
# CONFIG_FB_RADEON_OLD is not set <---Note: I have this card and did NOT set it.
# CONFIG_FB_RADEON is not set <---Note: I have this card and did NOT set it.
# CONFIG_FB_ATY128 is not set
# CONFIG_FB_ATY is not set
# CONFIG_FB_SAVAGE is not set
# CONFIG_FB_SIS is not set
# CONFIG_FB_NEOMAGIC is not set
# CONFIG_FB_KYRO is not set
# CONFIG_FB_3DFX is not set
# CONFIG_FB_VOODOO1 is not set
# CONFIG_FB_TRIDENT is not set
# CONFIG_FB_VIRTUAL is not set

# Console display driver support
#
CONFIG_VGA_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_DUMMY_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE=y <--you will be using VESA until you install Radeon later.
CONFIG_FONTS=y
# CONFIG_FONT_8x8 is not set
CONFIG_FONT_8x16=y
# CONFIG_FONT_6x11 is not set
# CONFIG_FONT_PEARL_8x8 is not set
# CONFIG_FONT_ACORN_8x8 is not set
# CONFIG_FONT_MINI_4x6 is not set
# CONFIG_FONT_SUN8x16 is not set
# CONFIG_FONT_SUN12x22 is not set

# Pseudo filesystems
#
CONFIG_PROC_FS=y
CONFIG_PROC_KCORE=y
CONFIG_SYSFS=y
# CONFIG_DEVFS_FS is not set
# CONFIG_DEVPTS_FS_XATTR is not set
CONFIG_TMPFS=y
# CONFIG_TMPFS_XATTR is not set
# CONFIG_HUGETLBFS is not set
# CONFIG_HUGETLB_PAGE is not set
CONFIG_RAMFS=y

# Ftape, the floppy tape device driver
#
# CONFIG_FTAPE is not set
CONFIG_AGP=y <----very important
# CONFIG_AGP_ALI is not set
# CONFIG_AGP_ATI is not set
# CONFIG_AGP_AMD is not set
# CONFIG_AGP_AMD64 is not set
# CONFIG_AGP_INTEL is not set
# CONFIG_AGP_INTEL_MCH is not set
CONFIG_AGP_NVIDIA=m <-------this is my motherboard an nForce AS MODULE !!!
# CONFIG_AGP_SIS is not set
# CONFIG_AGP_SWORKS is not set
# CONFIG_AGP_VIA is not set
# CONFIG_AGP_EFFICEON is not set
# CONFIG_DRM is not set <----very important. This stops ATI Drivers in it's trax!
# CONFIG_MWAVE is not set
# CONFIG_RAW_DRIVER is not set
# CONFIG_HPET is not set
# CONFIG_HANGCHECK_TIMER is not set

4. Once I got that working I made a backup image using powerquest drive image so I allways had a place to go back to if I messed up the computer. Remember you are going to see an error at boot saying no AGP and that is correct as you have no video drivers installed. You are going to be running at 60hz flickery VESA mode. Once you get the drivers in, they run as Modules and load up and your AGP video card kick in just before X loads and get's into KDE desktop.

5. Then I went to ATI's website. I downloaded the XORG drivers there. The filename was fglrx_6_8_0-8.19.10-1.i386.rpm.


6. In the ATI readme/release notes, it clearly says that Posix shared memory must be enabled. I verified that the following line was in my Mepis ( I have an image of that too, so I had to go into windows to pull out that file and verify it), but this POSIX shared memory setting was NOT in my slackware; so I added the following to my /etc/fstab file.

tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0

then you have to mount this "tmpfs" drive by the following line in console:

root@pooter:~# mount /dev/shm

then you have to double-check that the mount was correct (again from the readme file) with :

root@pooter:~# mount | grep "shm"

I had no errors which ATI said was good.

6. Now to installing these drivers. I had saved them to my desktop.

I opened console, and switched to root.

root@pooter:/home/fogie/Desktop# rpm2tgz fglrx_6_8_0-8.19.10-1.i386.rpm

that line converts the RPM to a usable .tgz file for Slacker's.

then,

root@pooter:/home/fogie/Desktop# installpkg fglrx_6_8_0-8.19.10-1.i386.tgz

the console returned this:

Installing package fglrx_6_8_0-8.19.10-1.i386...
PACKAGE DESCRIPTION:
root@pooter:/home/fogie/Desktop# cd /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod
root@pooter:/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod# sh make.sh
ATI module generator V 2.0
==========================
initializing...
cleaning...
patching 'highmem.h'...
assuming new VMA API since we do have kernel 2.6.x...
doing Makefile based build for kernel 2.6.x and higher
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.10/build SUBDIRS=/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.10'
CC [M] /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/agp3.o
CC [M] /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/nvidia-agp.o
CC [M] /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/agpgart_be.o
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/agpgart_be.c:6077: warning: `ati_gart_base' defined but no
CC [M] /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/i7505-agp.o
CC [M] /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.o
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c: In function `firegl_stub_putminor':
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c:543: warning: `inter_module_put' is depreclared at include/linux/module.h:582)
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c:545: warning: `inter_module_unregister' ised (declared at include/linux/module.h:578)
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c: In function `firegl_stub_register':
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c:565: warning: `inter_module_register' is d (declared at include/linux/module.h:577)
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c:596: warning: `inter_module_put' is depreclared at include/linux/module.h:582)
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c: In function `do_vm_kmap_nopage':
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c:2610: warning: assignment makes pointer frr without a cast
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c: In function `__ke_agp_uninit':
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c:3618: warning: `inter_module_put' is depreclared at include/linux/module.h:582)
include/linux/module.h: At top level:
/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/firegl_public.c:2098: warning: `deferred_flush' defined bud
LD [M] /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/fglrx.o
Building modules, stage 2.
MODPOST
CC /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/fglrx.mod.o
LD [M] /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod/2.6.x/fglrx.ko
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.10'
build succeeded with return value 0
duplicating results into driver repository...
done.
==============================
You must change your working directory to /lib/modules/fglrx
and then call ./make_install.sh in order to install the built module.
==============================
root@pooter:/lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod# cd /lib/modules/fglrx
root@pooter:/lib/modules/fglrx# sh ./make_install.sh
- creating symlink
- recreating module dependency list
- trying a sample load of the kernel module
done.
root@pooter:/lib/modules/fglrx# cd /usr/X11R6/bin
root@pooter:/usr/X11R6/bin# dir
FvwmCommand* gxditview* sxpm* xload*
X@ iceauth* texteroids* xlock*
Xdmx* ico* transfig* xlogo*
Xmark* imake* transset* xlsatoms*
Xnest* inb@ twm* xlsclients*
Xorg* inl@ ucs2any* xlsfonts*
Xvfb* inw@ uil* xmag*
appres* ioport* uxterm* xman*
aticonfig* lbxproxy* vdcomp* xmbind*
atobm* listres* viewres* xmessage*
bbkeys* lndir* x11perf* xmh*
bbkeysconf.pl* luit* x11perfcomp* xminesweep*
bdftopcf* makedepend* x3270* xmkmf*
bdftruncate* makeg* x3270if* xmodmap*
beforelight* makepsres* xapm* xmore*
bggen* makestrs* xauth* xneko*
bitmap* maze* xbattery* xon*
blackbox* mergelib* xbiff* xorgcfg*
bmtoa* mkcfm* xcalc* xorgconfig*
bsetbg* mkdirhier* xclipboard* xorgsetup*
bsetroot* mkfontdir* xclock* xpaint*
ccmakedep* mkfontscale* xcmap* xpdf*
cleanlinks* mkhtmlindex* xcmsdb* xpmroot*
cxpm* mmapr* xcolormap* xprop*
dga* mmapw* xcompmgr* xrandr*
dpsexec* motif-config* xconsole* xrdb*
dpsinfo* mwm* xcuckoo* xrefresh*
editres* mxmkmf* xcursor-config* xroach*
fbrun* oclock* xcursorgen* xrx*
fbsetbg* outb@ xcutsel* xscreensaver*
fc-cache* outl@ xditview* xscreensaver-command*
fc-list* outw@ xdm* xscreensaver-demo*
fgl_glxgears* pcitweak* xdpyinfo* xscreensaver-getimage*
fglrx_xgamma* pdffonts* xdriinfo* xscreensaver-getimage-file*
fglrxconfig* pdfimages* xedit* xscreensaver-getimage-video*
fglrxinfo* pdfinfo* xev* xscreensaver-gl-helper*
fig2dev* pdftoppm* xeyes* xscreensaver-text*
fig2ps2tex* pdftops* xfd* xset*
fig2ps2tex.sh* pdftotext* xfig* xsetmode*
fireglcontrolpanel* pic2tpic* xfindproxy* xsetpointer*
fluxbox* pr3287* xfm* xsetroot*
fluxbox-generate_menu* proxymngr* xfm.install* xsm*
fslsfonts* pswrap* xfmtype* xsnow*
fstobdf* rclock* xfontsel* xstdcmap*
fvwm@ resize* xfractint* xterm*
fvwm-config* revpath* xfs* xtrapchar*
fvwm-menu-desktop* rman* xfsinfo* xtrapin*
fvwm-menu-directory* rstart* xft-config* xtrapinfo*
fvwm-menu-headlines* rstartd* xfwp* xtrapout*
fvwm-menu-xlock* rxvt* xgamma* xtrapproto*
fvwm-root@ s3switch* xgc* xtrapreset*
fvwm2* scanpci* xhost* xtrapstats*
fvwm24_convert* sessreg* xinit* xv*
fvwmbug* setxkbmap* xkbbell* xvidtune*
gccmakedep* seyon* xkbcomp* xvinfo*
getconfig* showfont* xkbevd* xvpictoppm*
getconfig.pl* showrgb* xkbprint* xwd*
glxgears* smproxy* xkbvleds* xwininfo*
glxinfo* spider* xkbwatch* xwmconfig*
gtf* startfluxbox* xkill* xwud*
gv* startx* xlander* xxgdb*
root@pooter:/usr/X11R6/bin# fglrxconfig

NOTE: I did not do any manual module loading of chipsets or AGP stuff like Shilo lists in his "this is how I do it all" post.

Then I just went through the config program and rebooted. I used the defaults that the configure program gave to me. I figured I would play it the safeway.

Here are the respective items in my Xorg.conf file once modified by ATI.

# **********************************************************************
# DRI Section
# **********************************************************************
Section "dri"
# Access to OpenGL ICD is allowed for all users:
Mode 0666
# Access to OpenGL ICD is restricted to a specific user group:
# Group 100 # users
# Mode 0660
EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Module section -- this section is used to specify
# which dynamically loadable modules to load.
# **********************************************************************
#
Section "Module"

# This loads the DBE extension module.

Load "dbe" # Double buffer extension

# This loads the miscellaneous extensions module, and disables
# initialisation of the XFree86-DGA extension within that module.
SubSection "extmod"
Option "omit xfree86-dga" # don't initialise the DGA extension
EndSubSection

# This loads the Type1 and FreeType font modules
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"

# This loads the GLX module
Load "glx" # libglx.a
Load "dri" # libdri.a

EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Graphics device section
# **********************************************************************

# Any number of graphics device sections may be present

# Standard VGA Device:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Standard VGA"
VendorName "Unknown"
BoardName "Unknown"

# The chipset line is optional in most cases. It can be used to override
# the driver's chipset detection, and should not normally be specified.

# Chipset "generic"

# The Driver line must be present. When using run-time loadable driver
# modules, this line instructs the server to load the specified driver
# module. Even when not using loadable driver modules, this line
# indicates which driver should interpret the information in this section.

Driver "vga"
# The BusID line is used to specify which of possibly multiple devices
# this section is intended for. When this line isn't present, a device
# section can only match up with the primary video device. For PCI
# devices a line like the following could be used. This line should not
# normally be included unless there is more than one video device
# installed.

# BusID "PCI:0:10:0"

# VideoRam 256

# Clocks 25.2 28.3

EndSection

# === ATI device section ===

Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI Graphics Adapter"
Driver "fglrx"
# ### generic DRI settings ###
# === disable PnP Monitor ===
#Option "NoDDC"
# === disable/enable XAA/DRI ===
Option "no_accel" "no"
Option "no_dri" "no"
# === misc DRI settings ===
Option "mtrr" "off" # disable DRI mtrr mapper, driver has its own code for mtrr
# ### FireGL DDX driver module specific settings ###
# === Screen Management ===
Option "DesktopSetup" "(null)"
Option "HSync2" "unspecified"
Option "VRefresh2" "unspecified"
Option "ScreenOverlap" "0"
Option "GammaCorrectionI" "0x00000000"
Option "GammaCorrectionII" "0x00000000"
# === OpenGL specific profiles/settings ===
Option "Capabilities" "0x00000000"
Option "CapabilitiesEx" "0x00000000"
# === Video Overlay for the Xv extension ===
Option "VideoOverlay" "on"
# === OpenGL Overlay ===
# Note: When OpenGL Overlay is enabled, Video Overlay
# will be disabled automatically
Option "OpenGLOverlay" "off"
# === Center Mode (Laptops only) ===
Option "CenterMode" "off"
# === Pseudo Color Visuals (8-bit visuals) ===
Option "PseudoColorVisuals" "off"
# === QBS Management ===
Option "Stereo" "off"
Option "StereoSyncEnable" "1"
# === FSAA Management ===
Option "FSAAEnable" "no"
Option "FSAAScale" "1"
Option "FSAADisableGamma" "no"
Option "FSAACustomizeMSPos" "no"
Option "FSAAMSPosX0" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosY0" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosX1" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosY1" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosX2" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosY2" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosX3" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosY3" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosX4" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosY4" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosX5" "0.000000"
Option "FSAAMSPosY5" "0.000000"
# === Misc Options ===
Option "UseFastTLS" "0"
Option "BlockSignalsOnLock" "on"
Option "UseInternalAGPGART" "yes"
Option "ForceGenericCPU" "no"
BusID "PCI:3:0:0" # vendor=1002, device=4152
Screen 0
EndSection

That is what the default gives me. I'm sure there is some hard core tweaking that I have to do but I have not gotten to that yet.

Ok so I reboot. I notice errors for the no AGP as I mentioned previously, then X loads and my monitor changes frequency. I can hear it on my monitor it makes a pop sound. I clicked the button on it to see my monitor settings and it showed me I had 85 Hz. Very good sign. X finishes loading.

Once I'm in X I open up console.

I type in "glxinfo"

and the console returns this:

fogie@pooter:~$ glxinfo
name of display: :0.0
display: :0 screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.2
server glx extensions:

there's a bunch of other stuff listed but those few lines there is what is of concern.

I also opened up "/var/log/Xorg.0.log and in there as the pc first boots up, I see it calling for AGP and DRI and it fails...but then it calls for the FGLRX (ati driver) and when that gets going it calls again for AGP and DRI and the log reports that they loaded fine, which I obviously new from the "glxinfo" printout in console. But this is another way that helps to see what's going on.

I then ran "glxgears" in console and I get:
root@pooter:~$ glxgears
16040 frames in 5.0 seconds = 3208.000 FPS (default box size)
19852 frames in 5.0 seconds = 3970.400 FPS (default box size)
20008 frames in 5.0 seconds = 4001.600 FPS (default box size)
19428 frames in 5.0 seconds = 3885.600 FPS (default box size)
9576 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1915.200 FPS (resized the gears window to 6" diagonal)
13290 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2658.000 FPS
26102 frames in 6.0 seconds = 4350.333 FPS
22471 frames in 5.0 seconds = 4494.200 FPS
24385 frames in 5.0 seconds = 4877.000 FPS

I also ran "dmesg" in console to see if anything else there too and I get:

agpgart: Detected NVIDIA nForce2 chipset
agpgart: Maximum main memory to use for agp memory: 816M
agpgart: AGP aperture is 128M @ 0xd0000000
fglrx: module license 'Proprietary. (C) 2002 - ATI Technologies, Starnberg, GERM
ANY' taints kernel.
[fglrx] Maximum main memory to use for locked dma buffers: 803 MBytes.
[fglrx] module loaded - fglrx 8.19.10 [Nov 9 2005] on minor 0
[fglrx] ACPI power management is initialized.
[fglrx] Internal AGP support requested, but kernel AGP support active.
[fglrx] Have to use kernel AGP support to avoid conflicts.
[fglrx] Kernel AGP support doesn't provide agplock functionality.
[fglrx] AGP detected, AgpState = 0x1f00421b (hardware caps of chipset)
agpgart: Found an AGP 3.0 compliant device at 0000:00:00.0.
agpgart: Putting AGP V3 device at 0000:00:00.0 into 8x mode
agpgart: Putting AGP V3 device at 0000:03:00.0 into 8x mode
[fglrx] AGP enabled, AgpCommand = 0x1f004312 (selected caps)
[fglrx] free AGP = 121909248
[fglrx] max AGP = 121909248
[fglrx] free LFB = 120172544
[fglrx] max LFB = 120172544
[fglrx] free Inv = 0
[fglrx] max Inv = 0
[fglrx] total Inv = 0
[fglrx] total TIM = 0
[fglrx] total FB = 0
[fglrx] total AGP = 32768

Some after thoughts:

1. When I ran Mepis if I was in KDE and clicked log-off, and got back to the KDE defaul log-on screen, my monitor would drop in frequency from 85hz in KDE to 60hz at the log-on screen. At that point, once my monitor "popped" and went down in frequency, some times, not always, but many more than not, my computer would just lock-up. I thought that this was a problem with Mepis. They have a small blurb about this on their website. But no fix. But about 1 of 15 log-on / log-off's I get this now in Slackware. I think this is either an ATI bug in this driver version, as again these drivers are similar to the version that Mepis is using. Or this is a problem with KDE or Linux.

2. Slackware with ATI drivers is giving me 200 FPS in low motion action in Unreal Tournament 2004 and drops to only about 120 FPS when in battle in the game with all details on high ! I could not get anywhere near this in Windows XP, or Mepis.

3. Going to have to turn off the agplock functionality and change my agp internal/external setting and activate the TLS in the video too.

Many thanks to gentoo's ATI guide, Shilo, & CWWilson !!

Originally Posted by jnsg

Since this thread seems to have become pretty active with ATI users I guess I'll ask my unanswered question here. Has anyone experienced a problem with a frozen system after exiting X? This is a problem I'm facing using ATI drivers. Any ideas on how to get around it?

Originally Posted by Alien_Hominid

You need patch from nvidia for 2.6.16 kernel. You will find it on http://nvnews.net/ site. Search in forum.